Answering a much needed call in Otter Tail County

Contrbuted photo
Pastor Chris Mathiason has recently taken over at Zion Lutheran Church of Amor. The church had been looking for a pastor since June 2022 when Pastor James Gronbeck retired.

By Tom Hintgen

Otter Tail County Correspondent

Being successful in attracting a pastor to a church in a rural area is challenging these days. Such was the case for Zion Lutheran Church of Amor.

Chris Mathiason was installed as pastor at Zion Lutheran in January 2025. He previously served as associate pastor in Staples, which included serving at a church in nearby Cushing, southeast of Staples.

In Amor he has replaced retired Pastor James Gronbeck, a Henning native who continues to reside at Twin Lakes in Otter Tail County. Pastor Jim retired from Zion Lutheran Church of Amor in June 2022 after serving as the head pastor for 31 years.

Zion Lutheran Church of Amor enjoyed four outstanding interim pastors between the time when Pastor Jim departed and when Pastor Chris arrived.

The Zion Lutheran Church of Amor Call Committee worked with the synod office during the call process. Zion Call Committee members Dean Greenwaldt and Ann Gibbs were well aware of the pastor shortages.

“We realized that many pastors prefer larger communities with more opportunities,” Greenwaldt said. “Changing schools for their children, careers for spouses of pastors and housing availability and affordability are all challenges to overcome. Also important are allotted time for vacations and having learning opportunities.”

Greenwaldt added that the root cause of the pastoral shortage is the lack of candidates entering the seminary. 

“Our synod maybe sees one or two new seminary graduates a year to be available for call,” he said. “More pastors are retiring than those entering the ministry.”

Gibbs said the Call Committee surveyed the congregation and compiled the information. 

“This provided the basis of showing what we can offer a pastor as a place where we value a person’s faith, growing our sense of community and how we encourage our pastor’s professional development,” she said.

Added Gibbs, “Zion Amor is truly a rural church which isn’t located in a town.  While it offers something totally unique like God’s Acres, there’s also the drawback in that it isn’t located in one community. That can make it hard to focus as we reach people from multiple areas.”

  She observes that the old process of pastors being “placed” by synods into a church is replaced with churches and pastors both providing information for review.  

“This allowed us to spend time getting to know candidates and find ‘the right fit.’  We are very happy to welcome Pastor Chris,” she said. 

Jeff Drake, Council President of Zion Lutheran Church, worked closely with the call committee throughout the process of locating a great fit for the congregation.

“Filling our pastoral vacancy was an exercise in both faith and patience,” Drake said. “It’s quite ironic, after a two-and-a-half-year search that spanned numerous candidates including some outside of Minnesota, that Pastor Chris lived just 20 miles away. It is a testament to the work of the Holy Spirit.”

Adds Drake, “During that time we experienced some highs and lows, but kept the faith that we would be united with the right person. Along the way, we were blessed by the impact of some wonderful interim pastors. Zion Lutheran warmly and enthusiastically welcomes Pastor Chris. We look forward to his continued leadership as our congregation follows our journey of Christian faith and service.” 

More about Pastor Mathiason

Residing in Perham are Pastor Mathiason and his wife, Erin Bovendam, with their two sons, Henry and Ben. Erin serves as lead pastor at Calvary Lutheran Church in Perham. They met at Luther Seminary in St. Paul.

Pastor Mathiason was ordained as a pastor in 2006. Before that he was a program director at a Bible camp (Good Earth Village) Spring Valley, Minnesota, from 1995 to 1997 and was a youth director at St. Olaf Lutheran Church in Austin, Minnesota, from October 1997 to August 2002.

Mathiason, during the pandemic in 2020-21, took a break from ministry for a few months and stayed home with their two sons. He took a short call to a church in Akeley, northeast of Park Rapids.

On Sept. 1, 2021, he started serving as associate pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Staples and at the Bethany Lutheran Church in nearby Cushing. One of the many things he liked was the working connection between the two churches.

In previous years Pastor Mathiason served at churches in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania, Austin, Minnesota, and Spring Valley, Minnesota, south of Rochester. He believes that a successful pastor is one who is a good listener and relates to people from their point of view, “knowing where people are at and listening first.”

He enjoys singing as part of church services, also trying new things such as innovative outdoor worship services.

The Morrison County Record newspaper, southeast of Staples, noted that Mathiason, while growing up at Fairmont in southern Minnesota near the Iowa border, was part of a family that rarely missed a Sunday worship service.

Pastor Mathiason enjoys spending time with his family, being involved with his children’s sports activities, collecting and reading. In the early years of his ministry, he said the greatest satisfaction was pastoring to children. “This helped me in getting to know the greater community,” he recalls.

Zion Lutheran Church of Amor is part of the Northwestern Minnesota Synod Conference 7, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.